Sami Beaumont
@samibeaumont.bsky.social
Psychiatrist @ GHU Paris psychiatry and neurosciences
Research in computational cognitive science @computationalbrain.bsky.social
Research in computational cognitive science @computationalbrain.bsky.social
Pinned
Recasting adaptation as strategy inference
Flexible adaptation to uncertain and changing environments requires dynamic adjustments in behavioral strategies. While classical learning theories emphasize incremental strengthening of local stimulu...
tinyurl.com
Excited to share our preprint: "Recasting adaptation as strategy inference". This work explores how humans spontaneously adapt to changes by inferring strategies, rather than relying on incremental learning.@philippedomenech.bsky.social @khamascience.bsky.social @computationalbrain.bsky.social 🧠🟦 🧠🤖
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
When I bring up the fact that most replications are uninformative and unjustifiable by design, hence we should instead do better research, I always get the same argument back and I'd like to think through this reasoning carefully.
It goes like this:
It goes like this:
October 21, 2025 at 4:04 PM
When I bring up the fact that most replications are uninformative and unjustifiable by design, hence we should instead do better research, I always get the same argument back and I'd like to think through this reasoning carefully.
It goes like this:
It goes like this:
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Seeing lots of reactions to this compelling paper - showing VTA dopamine is linked to cue and outcome induced behavioral reactions: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I have some thoughts…
I have some thoughts…
Dopamine dynamics during stimulus-reward learning in mice can be explained by performance rather than learning - Nature Communications
VTA dopamine activity control movement-related performance, not reward prediction errors. Here, authors show that behavioral changes during Pavlovian learning explain DA activity regardless of reward ...
www.nature.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Seeing lots of reactions to this compelling paper - showing VTA dopamine is linked to cue and outcome induced behavioral reactions: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I have some thoughts…
I have some thoughts…
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Really interesting work by Bakhurin and colleagues challenging the reward prediction error hypothesis of dopamine:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
October 14, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Really interesting work by Bakhurin and colleagues challenging the reward prediction error hypothesis of dopamine:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Front page of Scottish newspaper The National today.
October 13, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Front page of Scottish newspaper The National today.
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
I deeply agree with the sentiment of this paper. Although, as a norm, I dislike mixing up "activism" and research, there are occasions in which it is justified. Universities and society are blindly and impositively adopting corporative tools that severely jeopardise our capabilities of reasoning
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Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
September 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
I deeply agree with the sentiment of this paper. Although, as a norm, I dislike mixing up "activism" and research, there are occasions in which it is justified. Universities and society are blindly and impositively adopting corporative tools that severely jeopardise our capabilities of reasoning
>>
>>
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
July 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
The only reason to refer to technology as “AI” is to confuse people. Change my mind.
July 17, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The only reason to refer to technology as “AI” is to confuse people. Change my mind.
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
A powerful essay by @omerbartov.bsky.social that concludes, with care and precision, that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Others have reached this conclusion too. Bartov's piece explores some deep and important questions. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...
Opinion | I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.
www.nytimes.com
July 15, 2025 at 10:45 AM
A powerful essay by @omerbartov.bsky.social that concludes, with care and precision, that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Others have reached this conclusion too. Bartov's piece explores some deep and important questions. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
June 11, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
📢 I'm very excited to release AgarCL, a new evaluation platform for research in continual reinforcement learning‼️
Repo: github.com/machado-rese...
Website: agarcl.github.io
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2505.18347
Details below 👇
Repo: github.com/machado-rese...
Website: agarcl.github.io
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2505.18347
Details below 👇
May 27, 2025 at 3:48 AM
📢 I'm very excited to release AgarCL, a new evaluation platform for research in continual reinforcement learning‼️
Repo: github.com/machado-rese...
Website: agarcl.github.io
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2505.18347
Details below 👇
Repo: github.com/machado-rese...
Website: agarcl.github.io
Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2505.18347
Details below 👇
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
New in Nature MentalHealth! with Vrizzi, Najar, Lemogne, and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
Behavioral, computational and self-reported measures of reward and punishment sensitivity as predictors of mental health characteristics - Nature Mental Health
Reinforcement learning task-based behavioral and computational measures displayed low test–retest reliability at the individual level. Also in contrast to self-assessed personality measures, behaviora...
doi.org
May 26, 2025 at 6:34 PM
New in Nature MentalHealth! with Vrizzi, Najar, Lemogne, and @mael-lebreton.bsky.social
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
We tested whether behavioural and RL-based model parameters are test-retest reliable and predict mental health traits.
The result? Not really.
A cautionary tale for comp. psychiatry
doi.org/10.1038/s442...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
I am seeing news that AI companies face “unexpected” obstacles in scaling up their AI systems.
Not unexpected at all, of course. Completely predictable from the Ingenia theorem.
Not unexpected at all, of course. Completely predictable from the Ingenia theorem.
The intractability proof (a.k.a. Ingenia theorem) implies that any attempts to scale up AI-by-Learning to situations of real-world, human-level complexity will consume an astronomical amount of resources (see Box 1 for an explanation). 13/n
May 17, 2025 at 8:48 AM
I am seeing news that AI companies face “unexpected” obstacles in scaling up their AI systems.
Not unexpected at all, of course. Completely predictable from the Ingenia theorem.
Not unexpected at all, of course. Completely predictable from the Ingenia theorem.
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas. (Pétition à signer)
blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-...
blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-...
May 17, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas. (Pétition à signer)
blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-...
blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
#OCD is a understudied disorder, meaning that we know way too little about the underlying (brain) processes.
We have thus built the Brain Explorer app www.brainexplorer.net where everyone can easily contribute to understanding OCD.
#MentalHealthAwareness @tueneurocampus.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
We have thus built the Brain Explorer app www.brainexplorer.net where everyone can easily contribute to understanding OCD.
#MentalHealthAwareness @tueneurocampus.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Brain Explorer - Test your brain power
The brain explorer app for Apple and Android tests your brain functions and helps researchers to understand the brain. Explore your brain power and how brain functions are important for mental health.
www.brainexplorer.net
May 14, 2025 at 11:45 AM
#OCD is a understudied disorder, meaning that we know way too little about the underlying (brain) processes.
We have thus built the Brain Explorer app www.brainexplorer.net where everyone can easily contribute to understanding OCD.
#MentalHealthAwareness @tueneurocampus.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
We have thus built the Brain Explorer app www.brainexplorer.net where everyone can easily contribute to understanding OCD.
#MentalHealthAwareness @tueneurocampus.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas.
April 15, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas.
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Excited to share our latest paper on lizard contests and agonistic signals! Read on for a daydream on how being a lizard could be like, disguised as a discussion on the relative impact of static colour patches and behavioral displays in animal contests 🧵
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Behavioral threat and appeasement signals take precedence over static colors in lizard contests
Behavioral signals outweigh static color patches in determining the winner of territorial disputes. To understand what limits aggression in wall lizards, w
academic.oup.com
November 15, 2024 at 7:34 AM
Excited to share our latest paper on lizard contests and agonistic signals! Read on for a daydream on how being a lizard could be like, disguised as a discussion on the relative impact of static colour patches and behavioral displays in animal contests 🧵
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
🚨 New study alert! 🚨
Ever wondered if rats and humans learn in the same way? 🐭🧑🔬
We tested this — and the answer is yes, at least when it comes to how we value rewards in context.
(with @shaunaparkes.bsky.social Lachlan Ferguson, Magdalena Soukupova)
🧵Thread 👇
1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Ever wondered if rats and humans learn in the same way? 🐭🧑🔬
We tested this — and the answer is yes, at least when it comes to how we value rewards in context.
(with @shaunaparkes.bsky.social Lachlan Ferguson, Magdalena Soukupova)
🧵Thread 👇
1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reference Point-Dependent Reinforcement Learning in Humans and Rats
Previous studies indicate that rewards and punishments in reinforcement learning are encoded in a relative manner. Reference point-dependence, a valuation bias shared by eminent adaptation level and p...
www.biorxiv.org
April 14, 2025 at 8:49 AM
🚨 New study alert! 🚨
Ever wondered if rats and humans learn in the same way? 🐭🧑🔬
We tested this — and the answer is yes, at least when it comes to how we value rewards in context.
(with @shaunaparkes.bsky.social Lachlan Ferguson, Magdalena Soukupova)
🧵Thread 👇
1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Ever wondered if rats and humans learn in the same way? 🐭🧑🔬
We tested this — and the answer is yes, at least when it comes to how we value rewards in context.
(with @shaunaparkes.bsky.social Lachlan Ferguson, Magdalena Soukupova)
🧵Thread 👇
1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas.
April 11, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Ça se passe en direct sous nos yeux. Nous ne pourrons pas dire que nous ne savions pas.
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
August 16, 2024 at 7:40 PM
🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Reposted by Sami Beaumont
Tired but happy to say this is out w @andreaeyleen.bsky.social: Are Neurocognitive Representations 'Small Cakes'? philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24834/
We analyse cog neuro theories showing how vicious regress, e.g. the homunculus fallacy, is (sadly) alive and well — and importantly how to avoid it. 1/
We analyse cog neuro theories showing how vicious regress, e.g. the homunculus fallacy, is (sadly) alive and well — and importantly how to avoid it. 1/
March 1, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Tired but happy to say this is out w @andreaeyleen.bsky.social: Are Neurocognitive Representations 'Small Cakes'? philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24834/
We analyse cog neuro theories showing how vicious regress, e.g. the homunculus fallacy, is (sadly) alive and well — and importantly how to avoid it. 1/
We analyse cog neuro theories showing how vicious regress, e.g. the homunculus fallacy, is (sadly) alive and well — and importantly how to avoid it. 1/
Excited to share our preprint: "Recasting adaptation as strategy inference". This work explores how humans spontaneously adapt to changes by inferring strategies, rather than relying on incremental learning.@philippedomenech.bsky.social @khamascience.bsky.social @computationalbrain.bsky.social 🧠🟦 🧠🤖
Recasting adaptation as strategy inference
Flexible adaptation to uncertain and changing environments requires dynamic adjustments in behavioral strategies. While classical learning theories emphasize incremental strengthening of local stimulu...
tinyurl.com
April 4, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Excited to share our preprint: "Recasting adaptation as strategy inference". This work explores how humans spontaneously adapt to changes by inferring strategies, rather than relying on incremental learning.@philippedomenech.bsky.social @khamascience.bsky.social @computationalbrain.bsky.social 🧠🟦 🧠🤖